Crank up That Volume to Medium! How to up Your Medium Game

14 tips and tricks for brand new creators that work on Medium but probably shouldn’t

I first joined Medium back in June while I was chilling out in Bali, Indonesia during month #3 of my half-year vacation. It was recommended to me by a couple of friends, and as I had all the time in the world now, I figured why not give writing a shot (I also tried making some really terrible digital portraits).

I wrote a really long piece about why I quit my 6-figure career with no real plan other than to travel around the rest of Asia for 6 months.

I enjoyed writing it as I hadn’t written anything of substance in many, many years outside of work.

It also wasn’t too great either, my fingers were pretty rusty after all that time. And they still are, but I believe the 20 or so articles I’ve written in the past month have helped lube the joints a bit.

Needyum

That first piece only had a few views, even after sending it to a bunch of my ex-pat friends. On the second day after publishing it, it got a nice juicy bump of ~50 views, much to my vain pleasure.

“Ah, the Medium algorithm has enjoyed my piece and spread the word!” I innocently thought.

In reality, my friend had posted my link on some Reddit-like website that I’ve since forgotten about and didn’t mention it until later. It was still cool to see, but the Medium gods we’re not smiling upon me as I thought.

Tedium

I’m only writing about the above story because it didn’t really hook me into writing. I actually ended up waiting until my 6 months of traveling were over before I sat down and made writing one of my goal-hobbies for the next year.

It was a bit tedious at times to get used to the writing, but now I actually feel guilty about it, as I’m writing instead of working on other things at times. A strange version of guilt indeed.

It was also disheartening to spend an hour or two writing what you consider a really good piece only to see 0 views for days at a time. That’s a shitty feeling.

So, as this is day 3 out of a 7-day challenge to write about Medium, I thought I’d share some simple tips and tricks to bring those 0 views to at least a couple dozen. (Make sure to hold on to the seat of your pants when you hit that 12th view for the first time! Sarcasm aside, it actually does feel pretty nice to see people reading & interacting with your stuff)

Basic Tips

1. Headlines in title case — obvious but just make sure its done correctly (can use a website analyzer if needed)
2. Subtitle in sentence case — I overlooked this one for a long time by mistake, one of the reasons it put me in curation jail as T.S. Johnson calls it.
3. Spacing — Medium is consumed a lot via mobile phones, so spacing is very important on this platform. Cut your paragraphs in half and put in headers.
4. Use your full name (or something close) — I just used my initials when starting out, as I didn’t want my stuff being read on social media yet. Oops. I later read that you probably won’t get curated if your name doesn’t sound realistic.
5. Don’t swear, you jack*ss.
6. Here are the official guidelines from Medium

Tips That Shouldn’t Work But Do

1. Build a following by following — you can follow up to 150 a day using the browser (I swear its only 120 in the app for some odd reason). Some people will follow you back if they like your stuff. Where do you find that 150? Look on the authors of articles that you like. Or big articles. Then click the claps and can go from there.
2. Try to add only Medium Partner Program members as much as possible — If one of your goals on Medium is to make money, it makes sense to have your followers be able to pay you right?
3. Clap more than usual — if you like an article give them a clap. Or give them 50! It stands out more than just 1 and increases the chance someone will read your profile and work.
4. Comment a few times a day — Assuming you also use Medium to read, why not pop in a well-thought-out comment at the end of everyone you read. People love interacting with readers (even though Medium tries their best to make that a difficult process).
5. Link to other authors — spread that word baby. If you enjoy another creator's work and if the subject is right, add them in and throw some cred.
6. Write about Medium — This is the one point that seems the most hypocritical to me. Medium states clearly that they don’t curate articles about Medium, trying to give the impression that they’re above self-promotion. But what articles consistently make the most money? Ones about Medium. I read that, didn’t believe it. Tried it, now I do.
7. Clickbaity titles — Again, a point that Medium says shouldn’t do well on their platform but does. I try not to use them myself outside of this 7-day challenge I’m on. You can use clickbait titles to catch some views, or you could do a bit of research into the art of empathy in headlines. Some interesting stuff to read actually. Try looking up Emotional Marketing Value for this.
8. Have a drink — Feel free to ignore this one. Just mentioning it as I’ve always enjoyed clacking away at the keys just a little bit more while having a nice refreshing cold pint beside me.

‘Rant’ over.

As part of a meaningless personal challenge, I’m spending the 7 days with my Captain Douchebag Product Manager hat on and am critiquing different parts of the Medium platform.

If you feel like being cynical, here are the articles from Day 1 & 2:

Feel free to check out my other stuff on Medium and follow me here. Thanks for reading and have a great day/dia/dina/deň/روز/journée/день/天/jaj!